what he was capable of in their one brief struggle.
Hector’s shape suddenly darted forward, urged on by a huge burst of speed. Helen’s eyes weren’t as keen in low light as Hector’s and she had to squint to see what he had seen, but when she did, she faltered and nearly fell out of the sky.
There were dark shapes on the beach. There was no fire, no flashlights to illuminate the scene so it was hard to tell how many people were there. Helen sped up, overtaking Hector from the air, and watched helplessly as a woman was brought to her knees by a big man. Helen heard the woman scream, and suddenly the scream was silenced with a gurgle. Flying faster than ever before, Helen swooped down and got close enough to see Pandora fall lifeless onto the sand at Creon’s feet, and another Pandora, chained and staked to the ground behind them, shimmer and shift into Daphne’s form.
A second later, a bestial roar erupted out of Hector as he saw the body lying in the sand. His whole frame shook with unnatural rage and pain, and Helen knew the Furies had possessed him. Still far away, Hector bounded across the wet sand, his eyes locked on Creon, as Creon turned and stared at Daphne. Creon clutched the bloody knife he held in his hand and advanced with murderous purpose toward Daphne.
“Get back!” Helen yelled at Creon as she thumped down into the sand next to her chained mother.
Helen’s hands glowed icy blue with the light of a gathering bolt. Knowing he was outnumbered and outgunned, Creon immediately turned and ran inland. Just seconds away from reaching his target, Hector snarled and changed direction, chasing after Creon.
“Hector, wait! Don’t go after him alone!” Helen called after him, unable to leave her bound and wounded mother behind. But Hector didn’t listen to her. Helen saw the two of them sprint away, so similar in physique, from the back they could be twins. For all the world, it looked to her like Hector was chasing a shadowy version of himself.
Helen turned back to Daphne and ripped the chains off the shackles with her bare hands.
“What did you do, Mother?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“Not this!” Daphne said breathlessly as she gestured to Pandora’s body.
“I saw you in Pandora’s shape from the air!” Helen yelled, raking her hands through her hair and starting to pace with frustration.
“I did that to confuse Creon—I had no idea he would kill her!”
“And you didn’t use the cestus to influence him?” Helen asked skeptically.
“I never influenced him to kill!” Daphne asserted vehemently as she got up off her knees and faced Helen. “I was just trying to buy some time, stall for as long as I could. I never thought he’d do this!”
“Okay. Whatever,” Helen said, suddenly done with the conversation. She took her jacket off and put it over the gruesome corpse—Pandora’s corpse—Helen thought in grief before she turned back to her mother. “Are you badly injured?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine. You need to go stop Hector,” Daphne said as she changed gears seamlessly. “Go. I’ll take Pandora back to her family. Then I’ll find you.”
Helen nodded at her mother, knowing there was more to the story, but that would have to wait. She jumped into the air and headed west, staying low to the ground so she didn’t miss Hector and Creon as they ran through the unbelievably dark interior of the island. Her eyes couldn’t manipulate light the way the eyes of the Children of Apollo could; out here she was the one at a disadvantage. She wished Lucas was with her. He would be able to see perfectly even in the dark of the moors. He would also know where to look because he was a better strategist. Most of all, she just wished he was with her so that she wouldn’t have to face Hector and Creon alone.
Putting that thought aside, she flew from one end of the island to the other, but she didn’t see them anywhere. She backtracked, knowing that her adversary wasn’t stupid enough to keep running until he fell into the ocean. Creon was trapped on the island, unless he was trying to get to someplace where he could get off of it. Helen took a sharp turn and flew north toward the ferry.
It was late, too late to catch the last ferry, but maybe Creon didn’t know that. In a second, Helen was approaching the more